Events

I'm reading Chris Mooney's latest, The Republican Brain, which attempts to explain the differences between conservatives and liberals based on their psychological makeups. For instance, conservatism correlates negatively with openness but positively with conscientiousness. He also talks about episetemic closure, which psychology predicts (and we can observe) is far more likely on the right than on the left. I plowed half-way through the book yesterday, and I expect to finish it on the plane Wednesday....

Transport analyst and writer Tom Vanderbilt has a four-part series in Slate about the crisis in American walking: The United States walks the least of any industrialized nation. ... Why do we walk so comparatively little? The first answer is one that applies virtually everywhere in the modern world: As with many forms of physical activity, walking has been engineered out of existence. With an eye toward the proverbial grandfather who regales us with tales of walking five miles to school in the snow...

At a client site all day, with about 10 minutes for lunch. Regular posting will resume Sunday.

Krugman explains: Mr. Christie’s big move — the one that will define his record — was his unilateral decision back in 2010 to cancel work that was already under way on a new rail tunnel linking New Jersey with New York. At the time, Mr. Christie claimed that he was just being fiscally responsible, while critics said that he had canceled the project just so he could raid it for funds. Now the independent Government Accountability Office has weighed in with a report on the controversy, and it confirms...

Connecticut's house has voted to repeal the death penalty, which will make the state the 17th to abolish it: Senate Bill 280 cleared the House 86-62, a vote that broke largely along party lines. The bill now goes to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who has pledged to sign it, ending a form of punishment in the state that dates back to Colonial times when those convicted of being witches were sent to the gallows. [S]upporters of the repeal effort say the state's death penalty is irrevocably broken — just one man...

Pauvre chat: (Via Sullivan.)

I'd say he's performing about as expected:

Theories also have predictive value; that is, in order for a hypothesis to graduate to theorydom, it has to fit all the available facts and predict future events. You know, like anthropogenic climate change, which gets closer to being a true theory every day. For example, via Fallows, a paper written in 1981 seems to have predicted it pretty well: Sometimes it helps to take a step back from the everyday pressures of research (falling ill helps). It was in this way we stumbled across Hansen et al (1981)...

The FBI has put together a committee of university presidents to root out foreign spies who have infiltrated American colleges: While overshadowed by espionage against corporations, efforts by foreign countries to penetrate universities have increased in the past five years, [Frank] Figliuzzi, [Federal Bureau of Investigation assistant director for counterintelligence] said. The FBI and academia, which have often been at loggerheads, are working together to combat the threat, he said. Attempts by...

I like being busy, but it does take time away from lower-priority pursuits like blogging. If I had more time, I'd pontificate on the following: Paul Krugman wonders why Paul Ryan is taken seriously, as do I; Chris Mooney and Kevin Drum wonder what about the Republican brain makes them so opposed to facts; The Atlantic Cities has a fun gallery of world subway platforms; and The Times examines the ridiculousness of taking laptops out at airport checkpoints. For now, though, it's back to the mines.